[Updated on 12 September 2022]
Patreon laid off its security team last week, and a former privacy engineer there, Emily Metcalfe, there said she wouldn’t trust her data there. Big yikes. Patreon came out saying it was just five people laid off, and that the majority of security personnel remain in place, but another anonymous internal report said there was nobody left qualified to run the tools. Regardless of how bad it actually is (which only people inside know), you can be sure there’s something amiss when security people are willing to publicly shit-talk you on the internet after being let go. MORE
Patreon, the site that lets content creators offer monthly payment subscriptions, has laid off its “entire” security team, according to a former Patreon security engineer, who posted to LinkedIn (via @wbm312) saying that she “and the rest” of the security team were let go. I’ve also heard from others who told me that this is accurate, despite a claim presented without evidence by Patreon’s U.S. policy head, who declined to share the number of employees on the security team prior to the layoffs. Patreon intimated that the roles would be outsourced, but the move still resulted in considerable backlash from the creator community, especially given Patreon had a breach back in 2015.
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- Patreon security team layoffs cause backlash in creator community
- Patreon confirms security team layoffs
For those asking for a primary source: https://t.co/Wja4t5QrY6
Someone scoop up Emily Metcalfe (@emilymet). pic.twitter.com/2T7ksUYjqI
— Whitney Merrill (@wbm312) September 8, 2022
